With the first Republican primary Looming, who lost ground in the Saturday night debate?

At least, no one tripped as they walked on stage.  Good start!  Well, sort of.  Trump, Carson and Kasich had some trouble with their introduction and entrance timing.

Early attacks against Cruz by moderators were effectively deflected.

When Governor Christie took Rubio to the woodshed, he did it effectively.  Rubio simply didn’t respond well to the allegation that he is not prepared to be President.  Christie nailed him to the wall on this and Rubio’s Senate performance.

The debate was too long.  Even political junkies were yawning by the end.

Overall debate results…

Winners:

Cruz gave the best and most substantive responses through the entire evening.

Christie had his best debate performance to date.  His command of the issues and strong presentation raised his stock in the race.

Bush might have spared his campaign immediate closure by his effective faceoff with Trump and an adequate, albeit lackluster response to questions.

Losers:

Trump did nothing more than regurgitate his “Make America great” and “We will win” mantra.  The extremely weak response of the audience to him was very telling.  His position and response on eminent domain fell flat.  Several booing episodes further emphasized the Trump-flops.

Rubio, he gave his familiarly strong rhetoric but failed several times when challenged on substance.  At one point there was even a hushed boo from the audience as he rehearsed one of his canned lines for the third or fourth time.

Carson, once again, demonstrated that he s a nice man.  He just doesn’t rise to the occasion.

Kasich has an ability to speak reasonable but just doesn’t generate enough excitement to move voters. He teeters on the line between winner and loser, but not on the winner side.

Closing statements didn’t change the list of winners and losers in this debate.  Had Trump not already been one of the losers, however, his cheap shot at Cruz would have pushed him over the edge.

This debate may have been more defining than any other in terms of separating “the men from the boys”.

It looked to me like there were three men left standing.

***Gordon Howie is an author and CEO of Life and Liberty Media***

“It’s not about right or left, it’s about Right or Wrong.”

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